1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to agricultural equipment, particularly cultivating machines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As far as I am aware, the relevant prior art consists of, on the one hand, manually operated cultivating tools having a loop of round steel wire attached to a long handle and, on the other hand, powered cultivators such as rotary tillers and the devices disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,517,733 to Takats, 2,755,717 to Wirth, and 2,859,676 to Pottol et al. which employ moving tines or sharp cutting blades disposed beneath the body of the cultivator. The former are subject to the obvious disadvantage of all manually operated tools, and the latter are subject to the following disadvantages: (1) while some do cut the tops of weeds off, they leave the roots of the weeds in the ground, permitting many of the weeds to regrow from the roots, (2) some miss a substantial portion of the weeds, (3) they cannot be used to cultivate close to overhanging crops without damaging the tops of the crops, and (4) some dislodge chunks of soil and stones and therefore cannot be used to cultivate close to delicate plants without damaging or covering these plants.